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Lower Sussex Little League opening day moves to Friday night

For years, Lower Sussex Little League has held their opening day ceremonies on a Saturday. But this year, the league will begin a new tradition after scheduling opening day festivities for Friday, April 11.

“[It’s] a different approach this year,” said League President Tracey Littleton. “The whole idea was to make this a fun night for the kids. [We] may have a home-run derby and some other events for the kids to do.”

Another feature that Littleton is looking to add for opening day and for Friday-night games all season will be a local restaurant-sponsored concession stand. While the league is still in talks with a few different restaurants, he said that, ideally, they would have a different restaurant sponsor the concession stand each Friday.

Littleton said many of last year’s coaches will likely be returning this year, but the league has also added a volunteer coordinator this year to ensure that they have enough volunteers for coaching, concessions and umpires.

“We have a good amount of coaches that want to return this year,” Littleton explained. “Right before tryouts, we try to have everybody in place. We’ve got some really good umpires out there, but we need new people to step up. The new umpires, we put with veteran umpires and have them doing the bases first. And once they feel comfortable, we get them behind the plate.”

The league will also be adding an advisory board to get parents more involved, with two to five parents from each division meeting once a month to discuss the season.

“One of our goals this year was to get more parents involved,” said Littleton. “[It will] give the board an idea of what we need to change for the upcoming year or during the season and gets the parents more involved. We’re out there for the kids.”

Tryouts for the 2014 season begin Saturday, March 8, for baseball and Saturday, March 15, for softball.